1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voice mail system and a voice mail exchanger and more particularly to an integrated mail system and a voice mail exchanger which can exchange voice messages between a user of a computer applied device (terminal device), having a voice communication function, and a user of a general telephone connected to a switch.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a conventional mail system which can handle voice information, a voice mail apparatus attached to a PBX for taking in telephones and a mail server for text or multimedia including an image using a calculator applied device represented by a personal computer or a workstation as a terminal are known.
A voice mail apparatus is a mail system attached to a PBX and a user of each telephone taken in the PBX transmits or receives a voice message via the voice mail apparatus. For example, when a communication partner is absent, a user of a telephone makes a telephone call to the mail box of the communication partner and registers a voice message in the voice mail apparatus. A user who is a destination of the voice mail accesses the voice mail apparatus using an interface which is intrinsic to the telephone such as operating a push button so as to fetch the message from the mail box and can hear it via the telephone.
On the other hand, a mail server is a system used to transmit or receive messages between users of personal computers or workstations connected to a LAN and as multimedia personal computers and multi-media workstations have appeared, a multi-media mail system which can transmit and receive voice and image messages in addition to text messages has been developed.
An example of an office system integrating a telephone based voice communication system and a LAN based data communication system is described in Fujitsu Journal, Vol. 19, No. 2, 1993, pp. 67 and 68.
In the system described in the aforementioned literature, each user uses a telephone and a personal computer together, performs voice communication using the telephone, and registers a voice message in a voice mail apparatus. The user transmits or receives multimedia mails using the personal computer.
In this system, a list of the voice mails received by the voice mail apparatus can be displayed on the screen of a personal computer. When a user designates a voice mail to be received on the screen of the personal computer, the system rings a bell of the nearest telephone and outputs the message to this telephone. Reception of multi-media mails is indicated by a reception lamp attached to the telephone and the voice mail can be heard from the voice output device of the personal computer.
Although the aforementioned general voice mail apparatus is an effective means in smooth proceeding of transfer of a voice message, operations such as mail registration, reception, and cancel are performed by an interface which is based on an intrinsic button operation of the telephone, so that there is a problem imposed in the operability and the apparatus is not fully utilized actually.
On the other hand, a multi-media mail system is comparatively inexpensive and excellent in operability because a mail operation can be performed by using a GUI (graphical user interface) of a personal computer. Since voice information and image information can be managed in a file format, they can be shared and reused easily between application programs at each terminal device.
However, in the aforementioned conventional integrated office system, although integration of telephone based voice communication service and LAN based data communication service is realized, the voice mail apparatus for handling voice mails and the multi-media mail system for handling multi-media mail are independently mounted and it is necessary for a user to select properly one of these two mail systems.
Since the voice information is distributed to and managed by the voice mail apparatus and the multi-media mail system, a problem arises in that all of the voice information cannot be shared or reused between the application programs.